02 January,2009 09:04 AM IST | | Agencies
Its paint is peeling, its grounds are scruffy and there are no Secret Service agents in sight. But the 19th-century mansion otherwise bears an uncanny resemblance to the White House.
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Built for a nobleman as a country estate a couple of decades after the better-known White House, Ukraine's white house slipped into obscurity and disrepair in the bleak post-Soviet era. It now houses Chernomyn School and school officials say they have appealed to the past two American presidents for funding for renovations without success.
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With Barack Obama about to take office, students and teachers are once again trying to raise the $2.1 million needed to repair the dilapidated structure. "We want this building to be as good as the real White House, we want to show it to the whole world," said school principal Ruslan Brol.
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Brol said the architect who built the mansion in 1820, 20 years after President John Adams moved into the American White House, apparently didn't realise his design was strikingly similar to the official US presidential residence. Both were built in a neoclassical style popular in the 19th century. The residence was converted into an orphanage after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Today, the school is divided into classrooms used by 200 students, aged 7 to 17, drawn from five neighboring villages. Painted yellow and white, the school comes complete with columns and an oval office, where students play table tennis and hold dance parties.
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-- Agencies
